Build flexibility into your Employee Wellness Program.
Think ahead: what unexpected challenges might come up as you start your Employee Wellness Program? How could you adapt and change the Company Health and Wellness Program to meet those challenges?
• Look at the “what if’s?”
• What if your classroom space is suddenly no longer available?
• What if you can’t hold the Health Fair in the usual place?
• Have a ‘Plan B’ (or even Plan C or Plan D) in mind for when the “what if’s” happen.
• Build a team that can help with the Company Health and Wellness Program
• Who else could teach the health education class if the regular instructor cancels at the last minute?
• Know what areas of expertise your staff has besides their ‘main’ job. For example, find out who has fitness instructor credentials besides just the physical therapist.
• Don’t wait for a crisis before you build a network of people that you can call on.
• Be ready to roll your sleeves up
• Jump in to fill a gap if you need to.
• YOU may have to help restock the milk case in the dining facility when the Dairy Month ‘Milk Mustache’ contest results in raised sales during lunch.
• Be willing (and ready) to respond to feedback about the Company Health and Wellness Program
• Get participant feedback while the Company Health and Wellness Program is ongoing. Then be ready to adapt to those suggestions.
• For example, if kids in a pediatric obesity Company Health and Wellness Program fight the idea of completing physical fitness logs, then get a verbal summary of their activity for the week instead.
• Simplify Company Health and Wellness Program
• If part of your Company Health and Wellness Program is not working, try making that part less complicated.
• For example, if getting follow-up information is not going the way you planned, then make the process to get information easier OR decrease the number of pieces of information that you collect.
• Use lemons to make lemonade
• What do you do when the Company Health and Wellness Program doesn’t turn out exactly as you planned? Look for what did turn out. Often, the ‘unexpected outcomes’ produce positive results.
• For example, one company’s database to collect sick call data was made obsolete by a regional system. However, the company database was able to be used in a different way to track vaccination information that enhanced delivery of care to Employees.